The group of Amity stood outside the central government building, watching as five very harassed-looking faction representatives stomped out of its doors at the conclusion of their semi-annual faction representatives meeting. Johanna sported yet another cut on her face, Marcus gripped his head and moaned, Jeanine and Jack looked as though they had just tried to strangle each other, and Eric screamed something about explosives.
"What happened?" one of the Amity women asked Johanna as she slowly made her way towards them, nursing her cheek.
The Amity representative sighed. "The usual. Jack and Jeanine started a fight over whether something that couldn't be proven true was a lie. Eric got bored and ran around the room challenging people to a duel, and then Marcus took out his belt and whipped everyone for triggering his migraine. I tried to stop him, and I got this cut." Johanna paused to wipe the tears of frustration from her eyes. "Every year it's the same! The others argue or end up doing the stupidest things, and we can never get anything done! I just wish they'd settle down and have a peaceful discussion for once."
The Amity stared after her as she walked away, shaking their heads. "This can't go on. We must do something," one of them decided.
The others nodded in agreement. "Yes, we've got to teach the others a lesson."
"I have an idea," said someone. "Who serves the drinks to the faction representatives during their meetings?"
"The Abnegation, I would imagine."
"Anybody got gray clothes and the keys to the conflict room?"
At the Next Faction Representatives Meeting
"Hello, fellow faction representatives," Johanna plastered a smile to her face as Marcus, Jack, Eric, and Jeanine filed into the room. To her dismay, Marcus was already rubbing his temples, and Eric was looking at the others as though contemplating where to punch them.
As they sat down, a young woman in a gray dress brought in five glasses of water. An icy silence descended on the room as she walked out.
"Well," said Johanna tentatively, raising her glass, "it'll be a new year soon. Let's have a toast for, um, successfully leading the city through another prosperous year."
Eric whooped, and Marcus grimaced. The other two raised their glasses listlessly. "To the new year."
Johanna frowned as the water flowed into her mouth. It took her only a split second to identify the taste of the chemical dissolved in the water: peace serum. Concentrated.
"Hey, guys, wait! Don't drink-!" she shouted, but it was too late. The others had already gulped down their "water." Oh dear, thought Johanna. Taking peace serum every day all these years has made me immune to it, but what will it do to the others? At these concentrations?
She didn't have to wait long to find out. Marcus spluttered as he set down his glass. "What on Earth-!" he paused a moment, then his face changed from an expression of rage to one of pure bliss. "Ah, my head hasn't felt this good in ages." Smiling, Marcus put his head down on the desk and fell asleep.
Jack Kang succumbed next. He gagged, then looked up at the others with glazed eyes and a wide grin. "Hi, everyone. I feel silly. Really really really…silly."
Jeanine giggled and sloshed water everywhere. "That's because you're from Candor! They're all silly. They're a cross between a can and a door!"
Jack frowned a moment, then responded in between screams of mirth, "Your faction is even sillier, Jeanie! Erudite. That doesn't even sound like a word!"
Johanna laughed so hard at the sight of this that she tumbled to the floor. If only every meeting could be like this, she thought. Whoever drugged them is a genius.
Her pleasure was cut short, however, when Eric climbed tipsily to his feet and pulled out a gun. "Whoa, Eric!" Johanna yelled in alarm, scrambling to her feet. "You're supposed to be feeling peaceful!"
"Peaceful is happy," Eric replied as he aimed his gun at nothing in particular, "and I'm trigger-happy!" With that, he climbed onto the table and began firing shots into the air, whooping like a cowboy.
"Stop it!" Johanna yelled. She lunged towards the Dauntless leader, but was dragged backwards by Jack and Jeanine.
"Come be friends with us, Johanna!" they begged, laughing hysterically. "Our names all start with J!"
"To the trio of J's!" yelled Eric, who began shooting blindly downwards.
Johanna screamed and ran for the door. People of every faction but one pushed forward with confused looks as she burst onto the street. "Help me! The other representatives have had an overdose of peace serum!"
Before the crowd could react, Eric surged out of the meeting room. "Long live the Dauntless!" he yelled, firing his gun into the air. By this time, he had run out of bullets, so nobody ran. The Dauntless echoed his cheer.
Jeanine and Jack stumbled out next, chortling and singing tunelessly. The Candor and Erudite erupted in laughter, pulling out cameras to film their deranged leaders.
"Hey, I'm in a sharing mood today!" the leader of Candor yelled. "When I was two, I used to drink toilet water! Imagine that! How terrible it tasted!"
"Speaking of terrible," Jeanine giggled, "I was planning something so terrible the other day! I was trying to destroy the whole city! Imagine that! I'm a very strange person, aren't I?"
Silence descended on the crowd. A few moments later, Marcus wandered outside. He yawned, then grinned from ear to ear. "Tobias!" he called out. "Tobias! Where are you? Daddy had a nice nap and he's feeling happy today! No more whipping! Yay! I'm not very nice to you, am I, Tobias? I'm sorry. You hear that, Tobias? I'm sorry!" The assembled people began to mutter darkly.
"Johanna! What have you done to them?" demanded several voices.
"As I said," Johanna answered, ducking as Eric swung a knife wildly through the air, laughing like a four-year-old, "somebody put concentrated peace serum in the water that was given to us. I was only spared because I've become immune to it."
With that, all hell broke loose. Johanna took the opportunity to escape.
"It must be the Amity! They drugged our representatives!"
"Get them!"
"They're not here! Not one of them!"
"How can that be?"
"What do we do with these four?"
"Lock 'em up 'till they come to their senses!"
"How long will that take?"
"How would I know? Do I look Amity to you?"
"Where should we hide our footage? Jeanine will surely try to destroy them when she wakes up!"
"Put them in the Abnegation government computers! She'll never think to look there!"
"Great! And we can replay it every year at New Years!"
"Hey, guys, would you be willing to keep our videos stored on your computers?"
"Sure!"
"Did you hear what Marcus said about whipping his son? And Jeanine about destroying the city?"
"Oh, I'm sure that was just drug talk."
"Hey, where's Johanna?"
Five hours later, the faction representatives returned to their normal selves. Marcus became addicted to the peace serum, which is why he practically begged Tris to bring him to Amity with her later. Jack Kang returned a hero in Candor for reaching "heretofore unseen levels of honesty." Eric lost his bet with a fellow Dauntless that he wouldn't fire a gun during the representatives meeting, so he was forced to get five hundred piercings in his face. Jeanine began plotting how to get the embarrassing footage of herself off of the Abnegation computers before it was revealed to the world. And thus began the war.
By Sheronnale #3
Just wondering what would happen if all of the leaders suddenly got high on peace serum after reading about Tris's overdose.
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